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Thursday, February 2, 2017

BOOK SUMMARY 313 Resilience from the Heart

BOOK SUMMARY 313 Resilience from the Heart

·Summary written by: Dennis Swennen

"Both science and indigenous wisdom
remind us that we’re part of all that we see. This means that we’re a part of
the solutions as well. The key is that we must first shift our perspective so
we can recognize our connection.”

- Resilience from the Heart, page 158

There’s a question we ask ourselves each and every day.
Mostly it lingers unconsciously in the back of our mind as a nagging sense of
something unfinished or incomplete in our life: how do I make life better for
myself and my family? The answer to this question is precisely what the
book, Resilience from the Heart: The Power to Thrive in Life’s Extremes by
Gregg Braden is all about. It shows us through inspiring stories and
evidence-based examples why resilience is so necessary. Within the pages of
this book, you’ll find a comprehensive guide and resources to help you embrace
the biggest challenges in life in a healthy way. The book provides simple
methods and applications for a resilient life, career, and business.

The Golden Egg

We Have the Solutions

"Just as the technology was already available in the
1960s for space travel, today we already have the knowledge and the means to
alleviate the human suffering that has become the hallmark of our time of
extremes. We already have the ability to feed every man, woman, and child
living on this planet. We already have affordable, clean, and sustainable forms
of energy that can be made available to every household that needs them."-
Resilience from the Heart, page 163

Braden invites us to consider the facts of today and to
explore what they mean. If we’re honest with ourselves and acknowledge that the
world is changing, then it makes sense that our stories must change as well.

All that stands between us and a better world, is the
thinking that makes room in our lives for what is in fact already is available
to us. We must ask ourselves: are we willing to embrace the thinking that makes
such possibilities a priority? To transform our time of extremes, we must have
the courage to heal the crisis of thinking. From the facts available to us today
it’s obvious that elements for big solutions already exist. What is lacking is
the shift in thinking that makes such goals a priority.

The key to change is to make the object of our vision a
priority in our lives. Each of us, by engaging in a few simple actions to help
the environment and disadvantaged people, can make a contribution and
potentially influence others we know to do the same. Before the tipping point
of no return, nature gives us the opportunity to turn crisis into
transformation. This fact is the good news that helps us to recognize
opportunities for change when they appear in our lives.

Gem #1

Make an Honest Assessment

"Our reluctance to accept that the changes exist may
even compromise our ability to adapt – we can only cope with changes that we
acknowledge."- Resilience from the Heart, page 126

As creatures of habit, we tend to reflect today the way
we lived life at a particular time in our past. So many of the old ways of
thinking are no longer enough to meet the needs of our transforming world. We
tend to put our lives on hold until that familiar world returns. While we’re
waiting for the normal to return, we remain unconscious of the way life is now.
Our reluctance to accept that the changes exist may even compromise our ability
to adapt – we can only cope with changes that we acknowledge.

How can we thrive in a new world if we put our attention
on waiting for the old world to return? There never was a better time than now,
to be honest with ourselves about what we’re up against. Do we embrace the
change or do we hold on to our old habits and patterns of thinking which might
not be sustainable anymore?

We have two possible ways to deal with the reality of a
shifting world. We can choose either to (1) discount the facts that tell us the
world has changed, and that we need to think and live differently, leaving
ourselves and our organizations vulnerable to the new conditions or (2) be
honest with ourselves about the volatility that comes from the convergences of
extremes, and to learn to adapt our thinking and ways of life to minimize the
negative impacts of the change.

Gem #2

Accessing Heart Intelligence

"Growing evidence suggests that the heart and the
brain work together to share the role of the body's master organs – two
separate organs connected through a common network of information...Creating a
heart-brain coherence empowers us to experience deep states of intuition and to
do so on demand."- Resilience from the Heart, pages 11 and 25

What’s important here is to listen to your body and to
learn how it communicates with you. This ability to perceive and create harmony
in the body is a preparation that allows us to be at our best for whatever we
choose to pursue. The key to our transformation is simply this: the better we
know ourselves, the better equipped we are to make our choices wisely.

Hereby it’s of critical importance to recognize the
distinction between heart-based intuition and what we know as our experience of
instinct. Instinct is nature’s way of informing us in the present, based upon
experiences in the past. Without a doubt, our instincts can powerfully serve us
in certain situations. Heart intelligence, on the other hand, is instant and
fast, based on the present time of the moment. The heart knows with unwavering
certainty. Our task and practice is to merge and reconcile the two experiences
into coherence.

The steps to coherence are as simple as focus, feel, and
breathe. The heart and brain are always in some state of coherence but due to
the chaos of daily life and the presence of negative emotions, our coherence
levels may be low. More coherence leads to greater resilience.

Resilience is the possibility to create turning points
that minimize the impact of abrupt change and shorten the time it takes to
recover when hardship occurs. We create wiser and better solutions.

Resilience is found on two levels: personal resilience
and community resilience. When we try to describe precisely what a community
looks like, we find there are many variations. A community is all about us, it’s
about everyday life and the way we live it and that includes our organizations
and businesses too. Regardless of its shape or reason of forming, two keys must
be present for any community to be successful: a common vision and a common
bond.

The resilience that we develop as individuals becomes
even more effective, powerful, and potent when it can be applied by our
families, friends and co-workers. It’s no secret that we’re already a global
community: the challenges experienced in one part of the world are rarely
limited to that part of the world. We share everything, including the hardships
and effects of an unsustainable economy or extreme weather conditions.

You might ask yourself what the answers might be to our
life’s extraordinary challenges. Are you willing to accept an honest answer
based on the reality of our world today, or are you hoping to confirm an
opinion that you have already formed for yourself?

Whether we’re talking about the future of next week or
that of the next generation, the key is that whatever becomes of our world and
lives, the transformation begins with us, the individual.

How can we deal with the issues unless we’re willing to
acknowledge the situation? Our willingness to think differently will be the key
to the success of our journey. We must go from simply surviving change to
thriving through change. Once we’re in this space of balance and harmony within
ourselves in our hearts and minds, we can create harmony with the world beyond
it.